I love how in every topic about WFH there's some dudebro going on about the economy suffering due to supposed lessened productivity and I'm like... Why should I care?
Don't you even think about the billionaires, bro?
Less trickling down for me
I love the abstract “productivity”.
Like yo, cancer is incredibly productive.
Demolishing subsistence farms and replacing them with cash crop slave plantations is mad profitable.
I could make thousands of dollars in a day if I just sold everything I own.
Our metrics of economic growth revolve around basically doing all of the above, to varying degrees of figurative vs. literal-ness.
This reminded me of an old joke:
Two economists are walking down the street with their friend when they come across a fresh, streaming pile of dog shit. The first economist jokingly tells the other "I'll give you a million dollars if you eat that pile of dog shit". To his surprise, the second economist grabs it off the ground and eats it without hesitation. A deal is a deal so the first economist hands over a million dollars.
A few minutes later they come across a second pile of shit. The second economist, wanting to give his peer a taste of his own medicine, says he'll give the first economist a million dollars if he eats it. The first economist agrees and does so, winning him a million dollars.
Their friend, rather confused, asks what the point of all this was, the first economist gave the second economist a million dollars, and then the second economist gave it right back. All they've accomplished is to eat two piles of shit.
The two economists look rather taken aback. "Well sure," they say, "but we've grown the economy by two million dollars!"
People have been told their entire lives that the GDP of their nation matters without ever considering what it actually represents, or how it actually went up.
Great, number go up, but why and who actually benefitted.
The 1%. Productivity has been going through the roof, wages have stagnated for decades.
You should care because that profit should be going to the workers who create the value. It doesn't go to the workers, so you should continue not caring about productivity. Damn the man.
I prefer co-op games like the James Webb telescope. Thanks ESA for a perfect launch.
I'm a simple man, I see actual accomplishments of mankind being mentioned and I upvote.
Line go up is for smooth brained animals.
Rocket go up is for true gentlemen.
There's no Americans bragging about that. Corporations and the government, sure. The rest of us are to busy living in pain
Some years ago I were in US on vacation and a Cadillac commercial said you shouldn't buy cars made by lazy people wo have 4 weeks vacation every year, instead you should buy an American car.
you should buy a car assembly someone who is absolutely exhausted and has exactly no reason to give a fuck. Because freedom.
Most Americans have no clue what the rest of the world is like.
Most Americans don't even understand the progressive income tax system we have, they will go so far as to decline raises because it'll put them in a higher bracket and they think that will mean less take home pay. It doesn't! You should always take a raise!
I believe I'll someday move to a country that has good policies for everything from healthcare, to work life balance, and social safety nets, and I'll never have to deal with the American nightmare again.
God please let me move to Europe I don't even care what language I have to learn I just wanna be able to live without worrying about affording a doctor appointment.
If you work in academia, you don't need to learn a new language. English is the working language. Also the 5 weeks of holiday is nice, but what really helps is the working day.
I started as a bioinformatician a month ago. I come in to the office at 0830 have coffee from 09:00 til 09:45 with my boss and colleagues, work a bit, have lunch from 12:00 untill 13:15, work a bit, go home at 15:30. That's my day.
Work in IT.
Start at 9:00
Lunch 13:00-14:00
Go home at 18:00
Commute (if construction does not tear up the main crossing) is around 30min 1-way with bus or a 15-20min bicycle ride.
Experience: About 5 years without college/uni.
Maybe you don't need the language for work. But you will need te learn the language eventually for other day to day interactions.
lower unemployment
Doesn't matter, I can only have two, maybe three jobs at once so any more than that is irrelevant to me
higher growth
I get the same $8/hr whether the GDP goes up, stays the same or goes down. You can't leave workers out of the distribution of wealth and then pretend that more wealth is good for workers
Don't worry about it man. You are missing the point. Look at how many billionaires we have now! All that money is going to trickle down any time now!
Don't want to brag, but I took my compulsory 2-week vacation in July. I'm having another week of vacation in the middle of August and I'm taking a whole month off in the middle of October when my second child is born (dad-vacation, in addition to the 18 months that the mom has as paid maternity leave). Oh and all of this is fully paid.
I recall going to the UK after brexit, to a house party with family friends. I was hounded with how do you function with only a 2 week holiday. I then shared i had 4 weeks after 5 years. They were so confused that we could function with less than 6 weeks of vacation.
Burn out in the USA is a real thing. Our politicians will never vote for a mandatory vacation for anyone other than them selves
It's amazing how submissive American men are.
If there's one thing I've learned from Grindr it's that all Republicans are bottoms that think they're tops.
It took me way too long to realize chasing a high pay, high stress career wasn't worth it. I envied my friends and family for being able to enjoy weekends, evenings, and holidays when I couldn't. I missed my best friends bachelor party, I missed Christmas and New Years parties. If i didnt miss them entirely i would show up late or leave early from every occasion. I realized I was going to reach the end of life never having lived it.
Yup, I gave up my 70 hour work weeks. My 50 hour weeks grew my salary and position, then my 60 hour weeks put me in charge of massive projects, which drove me to 70 hours during a couple ERP implementations. I took a paycut overall, but now I work 40 hours.
I usually just take a week over summer then the other 6 weeks at other times of the year. Hotels, fights and stuff pretty much double their prices over the summer.
I can do you a half price fight. Just come over and tell me my mom can't cook.
As an american, who gives a shit about all that stuff when your family savings can be wiped out, home foreclosed upon, and bankrupted just because you get sick or suffer an injury!? Even if you plan and do everything right, it could still happen to you, through no fault of your own.
So, IMO until we have universal healthcare like every other modern nation, they all beat us...
Sorry, didn't see your email cos it's actually fuckin illegal to send me it if I'm not working
It can't be illegal to send you an email outside working hours, that's just silly. Now if it's illegal to demand that you read it and respond outside working hours, I would understand.
I used to work for a French company. My colleagues in France would take the whole damn month of August off, and then complain that North Americans never worked.
TBF my experience with Japanese and American workers is that you spend a lot of time in the office, but aren't particularly productive. Hardly surprising, given there's loads of evidence that suggests a strict enforcement of leisure time, actually increases productivity.
No one works at 100% if they work 70 hours a week and check their emails during the weekend.
Or as I once put it to a boss, when he asked me why I was leaving the office at 1700 on the dot, I finish my work in 8 hours, my colleagues need 9.
